Ordinary diners who take part in our annual survey each spring review restaurants and leave their feedback, but we also ask them to score restaurants from 1-5 on food, service and ambience. Harden’s then uses an average of these scores and measures them against other establishments in the same price bracket to arrive at the ratings published in the guide and online.

Snippets from some of your feedback may end up in the overall Harden’s review, noticeably they appear in “double quotation marks”. The rest of our pithy, bite-sized restaurant summaries are compiled by analysing the survey data and extracting recurring themes, looking at whether or not a venue was nominated in any of our categories – like ‘favourite’ or ‘most overpriced’ – and, of course, looking at the ratings for food, service and ambience.

The Harden’s ratings indicate that a restaurant is:

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All reviews are compiled from survey comments and ratings, without any regard for our own personal opinions, except in cases where restaurants are too new to have been included in the survey. If you want the editors’ view on new restaurants in London you can find them in our Editors’ Review section.

Where The Light Gets In

British, Modern restaurant in Stockport

Harden's
survey result

Summary

“Yes I know, it’s Stockport but… WOW!” Sam Buckley’s “splendidly hipster” bare-brick-walled converted Victorian warehouse with open kitchen and a tasting-menu-only format has taken the foodie world by storm since it opened in late 2016. On most accounts it fully lives up: “the hipster foodie intensity might be a turn-off for some people but the warmth and enthusiasm of the staff and sheer quality of the food make it a wonderful experience”. “The pace is leisured and slow, focused on the kitchen and with the chance to chat and absorb; there’s great music; plenty of chef-based action, and without a doubt it has killer appeal to anyone wanting to be immersed in food and watch a talented team”. And “you leave feeling sated, but in a really good way, from the beautifully judged surprise menu”. Well, that’s the unqualified version anyway. But there are also a number of reports which are supportive but with reservations: e.g. “there’s a lot of ambition on show at WTLGI, and I think their determination to pare back to the basics and tell a story with their food means that their regularly changing menu will sometimes hit, sometimes miss; for us it mostly missed, but I can see the potential; we were no doubt unlucky in attending on one of the coldest days in the year, and our expectations were sky-high because of stellar reviews and travelling specially from London, but this was just too austere and worthy” (or as another reporters said: “so pure you have to be an expert to appreciate the subtlety and get joy from it”). Still, everyone agrees that although it’s a little “earnest”, “they try very hard to look after you well”. And even most critics feel: “I wish them well, because they are outstanding in some aspects and genuinely different”.

Price

£110

£££££

Food

4

Very Good

Service

5

Exceptional

Ambience

4

Very Good

* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

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